A celebration of earthy ingredients & real food

Pan seared pepperdews

I have a deep seated angst that salads can not really be classified as proper recipes, and how can I post them as such! But I love salads, their crunch and freshness and beautiful colors can lift any meal. And I want this blog to be a place where one can come when you are fresh out of ideas and motivation – and some random browsing will leave you inspired again.

And what is more inspiring than a salad?? So let’s get to the recipe.

This salad is made up of 3 components. The greens, the seared peppadews, and the herbs and feta.

For greens I use mustard lettuce, rocket, coz lettuce leaves and butter lettuce leaves. However you can probably pick a packet or selection of mixed greens. The feta is just regular old ‘cheapest on the shelf’ and the herbs are fresh thyme and chives / endives.

And then the best part of course, the pan seared peppadews. I do them whole, and put them into the salad just like that (after cooling down). Because they still have all of their seeds in them, when you bite into one it has a little heat behind it!

If you are sensitive to heat, or are serving to someone who is, then I recommend that you halve and deseed the peppadews before pan searing them. This will eradicate a lot of the burn.

Instructions

First thing to do is heat up a medium sized pan or skillet. Add in a little olive oil, and then all of the peppadews.

Toss the peppadews in the oil on high heat until spots start to sear slightly. I like to undercook them slightly, as then the peppers retain some of their crunch.

Remove the peppadews and leave them to cool on a plate.

On a large platter, spread your mixed salad greens, layering lightly with pepper.

Chop up your feta cheese and nestle the blocks into your salad.

Check to see if the peppadews have mostly cooled, and topple them onto the platter. If they have not, wait until they are at about room temperature. If you add them while still hot they will wilt the greens around them.

Lastly, chop up your fresh chives / endives and strip your thyme. Sprinkle these on top and you are good to go!

Notes

I usually do not add any salt or even dressing to salads while making, because it can pull the moisture out of the greens within 15 minutes and leave them wilted and awful looking! However, I do always make sure either put a made dressing on the table, or most of the components one needs to dress your own salad, olive oil, salt, vinegar / lemon etc.

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comment and let me know which pin colors
you find the prettiest: )